All 90 aboard were feared dead in the pre-dawn crash. Lebanon's leaders ruled out terrorism while investigators collected witness accounts in hopes they could provide clues. Aviation experts cautioned it was too early to know what brought down the Ethiopian Airlines jet - particularly without the black boxes.

Many people were giving DNA samples to help identify the remains of their loved ones; one man identified his 3-year-old nephew by the boy's overalls.

At the Government Hospital in Beirut, Red Cross workers brought in bodies covered with wool blankets as relatives gathered nearby. No survivors had been found by nightfall, and the health minister said 21 bodies were recovered. Marla Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, was among those on board, according to the French Embassy.

The Boeing 737-800 took off at about 2:30 a.m. in driving rain, lightening and thunder, and went down 2 miles off the coast, said Ghazi Aridi, the public works and transportation minister.

Hours after the crash, pieces of the plane and other debris were washing ashore, including a baby sandal, passenger seats, a fire extinguisher, suitcases and bottles of medicine.

"We saw fire falling down from the sky into the sea," said Khaled Naser, a gas station attendant who saw the plane plunge into waters that had reached 64 degrees by Monday afternoon.

The Lebanese army also said the plane was on fire shortly after takeoff. A defense official said some witnesses reported the plane broke up into three pieces.

Aviation safety analyst Chris Yates said reports of fire could suggest "some cataclysmic failure of one of the engines" or that a bird or debris had been sucked into the engine.

He noted that modern aircraft are built to withstand all but the foulest weather conditions.

"One wouldn't have thought that a nasty squall in and of itself would be the prime cause of an accident like this," said Yates, an analyst based in Manchester, England.

Still, one prominent analyst cast doubt on the accuracy of witness reports of flames.

"Eyewitnesses almost always report aircraft exploding in the sky or seeing heavy, heavy flames," said William Voss, head of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Alexandria, Va.

Beirut airport is equipped with a sophisticated weather radar that flight controllers use to guide planes around the towering thunderheads and accompanying winds and lightning that can cause structural damage to airframes.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said terrorism was not suspected in the crash of Flight 409. "Sabotage is ruled out as of now," he said.

Ethiopian Airlines' CEO Girma Wake said the aircraft had been serviced on Dec. 25 and passed inspection. He said the plane had been leased in September from New York-based CIT Aerospace. A CIT spokesman declined to comment and referred questions to Ethiopian Airlines.